


Animal

by rendawnie



Series: Pieces [11]
Category: B.A.P
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fraternity, Best Friends, Coming Out, Discovery, Drinking, Implied Sexual Content, Kissing, M/M, Partying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-11
Updated: 2017-07-11
Packaged: 2018-12-01 02:36:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,990
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11476833
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rendawnie/pseuds/rendawnie
Summary: Youngjae thinks this could be their last chance. If only he'd known about all the chances they could have had, before.Soundtrack: "Animal", Kesha





	Animal

It still surprises Youngjae sometimes, how much Daehyun’s voice carries.

“I’m thinking about trying for Sooyoung tonight!” he calls from the bathroom while Youngjae waits on the couch, adjusting his thin choker and scrolling through his Twitter feed.

“Mmm,” he replies absentmindedly, liking some tweets and wrinkling his nose at others. “Sounds good. She looks great with the red hair.”

“Right?” Daehyun answers, and Youngjae can hear him even over the sound of the sink running. “Who are you checking out?” he continues after a moment.

Youngjae sighs, running a hand through his hair. He tries to think, tries to call up names and faces he’s been interested in lately, girls he’s had conversations with. Sometimes being in a fraternity is exhausting. He hates all the expectations, real or imagined, that are put on all of them. Be the hottest. Get the girls. Party, party, party, every night. Even _weekday_ nights, when they should all be studying, so they don’t flunk out of their classes and maybe possibly get kicked out of the frat.

Finally, he comes up with something. “Joohyun, maybe. She’s always hanging around with Sooyoung, maybe we can talk to them together.”

Daehyun emerges from the bathroom, eyes bright and excited and hair a perfect mess. He looks good. He looks really good, and Youngjae would really prefer he not. It would make things so much easier.

Daehyun crosses the living room and goes into the kitchen. Youngjae can hear him rummaging through the fridge before he returns to lean against the doorway, opening a fresh bottle of beer and taking a long swig. “Great idea. Let’s go kill it.”

Youngjae tries to smile as he gets up from the couch, but he’s having a hard time, tonight. He feels distracted, and agitated. Every time he stands next to Daehyun, close enough to feel the heat radiating off of him, the heat that’s only going to get magnified with every beer he has, he feels worse.

It’s been months and months of this, and he’s tried everything to make it stop. Nothing works.

Daehyun holds out his bottle of beer to Youngjae, offering a sip, but he turns it down with a slightly nauseated shake of the head. He really hates beer.

Sometimes he thinks he just may be the worst frat boy of all time.

Honestly, he would have stopped all of this ages ago, all the partying and bullshit that comes along with it. He would have stayed in the fraternity, of course, but Youngjae would have spent his time on more useful things. Studying. Never being too hungover to go to class. Not having a crush on Daehyun. That sort of thing.

He can never tell Daehyun, he knows that much. They have a reputation to uphold. What was it that Jeongyeon had called them?

_“Look at you two. The slutty terror twins,” she’d scoffed one morning as they crept their way towards the front door of the Theta Theta sorority house, to begin their latest walk of shame back to Beta Alpha Phi._

The slutty terror twins.

Daehyun had been in love with the moniker immediately, and had adopted it as a major part of the persona he kept on display nearly all the time, except when he and Youngjae were alone in their shared room late at night, the rare times when the cracks in his facade showed.

Youngjae liked that Daehyun best. He didn’t like it when he doubted himself, of course. But he liked it when Daehyun was soft. Quiet. Sweet, in less of a cloyingly flirtatious way. He likes partying Daehyun, too. Youngjae likes all Daehyuns.

*

An hour into the party being thrown by two sororites and two fraternities, in a combined effort, Daehyun and Youngjae are in the midst of being shot straight the fuck down by their intended conquests.

Sooyoung is staring at them like they’ve grown another two heads, while Joohyun tries to contain her laughter at Sooyoung’s side. Daehyun keeps crossing and uncrossing his arms, trying not to look too annoyed, too deflated, too anything, and Youngjae is just waiting. Counting the seconds until Daehyun wants to leave.

He’s not sure when he started taking such consideration of what Daehyun wanted to do and when he wanted to do it, but it’s working out fine so far, so whatever.

Joohyun is outright laughing now, guffawing as Sooyoung opens her mouth to reply.

“Daehyun. Um. You know we’re together, right? Me and Joohyun?”

Daehyun frowns. “I mean, I can see you in front of me. Together. So, yeah.” Youngjae rolls his eyes. So, _so_ very dense when he wants to be, Jung Daehyun.

Joohyun rolls her eyes, too. “We’re _gay,_ Daehyun. Sooyoung’s my _girlfriend._ Get it?”

Youngjae has never seen anyone’s jaw drop all the way to the floor before, but Daehyun nearly manages it.

It’s not terribly surprising, when Youngjae stops to think about it. Sooyoung and Joohyun are always together _._ It’s not such a stretch that they’re actually _together._ He’s watched them be sweet and kind to each other, sweeter than they are to most other people. He’s watched them flirt, and known it wasn’t a show for the frat boys. He’s happy for them.

Daehyun doesn’t look _un_ happy for them, to his credit. He mostly just looks befuddled, and overwhelmed, and before he can embarrass either of them further, Youngjae grabs his arm and says, “Let’s go home, Dae.” Daehyun doesn’t argue.

They make their way through the throngs of people, Daehyun still clutching a beer in his hand, towards the exit. Youngjae counts in his head as they stumble-walk, trying to remember how many beers Daehyun’s had. Youngjae had exactly one shot when they first arrived an hour ago. He’s still golden. Daehyun has had maybe two and a half beers, so he’ll probably sober up as soon as Youngjae gets some food in him. With a plan in mind, he half-drags Daehyun down the street, towards home.

*

Another hour later, Daehyun is sitting at the kitchen table in the Beta Alpha Phi house, shoveling down his third helping of Youngjae’s scrambled eggs and bacon, and Youngjae is just watching him, mystified at how much he can eat and still keep in shape without much working out.

Daehyun’s eating, Youngjae’s watching, and no one has said anything much until Daehyun finally speaks up between mouthfuls.

“They really like each other, I think,” he says thoughtfully. Youngjae nods. Daehyun downs some orange juice, still thinking. “I think it’s nice. I just never knew. I never knew anyone in the Greek system was…” he trails off, shrugging.

Youngjae chuckles, clearing his throat. “Well. Himchan and Yongguk are practically married, and it’s not a celibate marriage. And I mean, _I’m_ bi. So.”

He’s never told anyone that before, and he’s not sure why he’s doing it now, so casually, except that he’s tired of _not_ telling anyone, suddenly. Youngjae stares down at his fingernails, feigning unnatural amounts of interest in them. He can feel Daehyun staring at him.

“You’re what, now?” Daehyun asks finally.

“Bi,” Youngjae replies, putting his hands under his legs so he’ll stop fidgeting.

“Huh,” Daehyun muses, quieter now. So close to the quiet Daehyun that Youngjae likes the most.

“What?” Youngjae asks, feeling defensive.

Daehyun laughs a little. “I am too. I just never knew.”

Youngjae hears the words come out of Daehyun’s mouth, but he doesn’t really get a chance to consider all the implications of them and what it could mean for his poor, neglected crush, because Daehyun grins and says, “We’re the worst slutty terror twins of all time, Yoo Youngjae.”

Youngjae chuckles. “We kind of are. I haven’t even gotten laid in like, three months.”

Daehyun stares at the ceiling, thinking. “Me either, I don’t think.”

“Maybe we’re hitting on the wrong people,” Youngjae suggests lightly, and he doesn’t mean it the way Daehyun takes it, the way he can see him interpret it immediately, but he’s not entirely sure he regrets saying it, when Daehyun starts to blush and quiet goes even quieter.

Youngjae lets the silence hang in the air for a solid twenty seconds before he sighs and gets up to clear Daehyun’s plate away and put it in the sink. He busies himself with that, letting the sound of the rushing water overtake any thoughts rushing through his brain, but he can’t make the simple task last forever and so he turns around again before he’s really ready to, wiping his hands on his pants because there are no dish towels in this frat house.

(They had one. Everyone thinks that Jongup stole it a year ago to use as his after-sex clean-up rag, but Jongup never talks about his sex life so no one has been brave enough to ask for it back. Sometimes it keeps Youngjae awake at night, thinking about how stiff it must be by now. You could probably crack it in two without much effort.)

When he looks up after shoving that thought away for the fiftieth time, Daehyun is leaning against the doorway of the kitchen like he was before they left for the party, and he looks soft and sleepy and he’s smiling and Youngjae has to take a few steps forward to hear him when he starts to murmur.

“I think I’m gonna go to bed,” Daehyun says, biting his lip. Youngjae is almost eighty-seven percent sure Daehyun is flirting with him.

“Are you still drunk?” he asks, because it seems important.

Daehyun shakes his head no. “Eggs and bacon cleared that right up, cap’n.”

Youngjae nods. “Okay. Well. Sleep well.” He’s trying very hard to keep things on the level. He just doesn’t know which level he’s aiming for.

Daehyun smiles again. Youngjae is very, very weak. “You should come with me,” he says next, and suddenly there’s a sizeable lump in Youngjae’s throat making it difficult to swallow, let alone speak. Respond. He manages to nod, and follows Daehyun up the stairs.

They change out of their clothes silently, facing away from each other. Youngjae doesn’t know why, when they’ve seen each other naked a million times. It just seemed like a different kind of naked before, he guesses. One without...possibilities.

Daehyun lays down in his bed and Youngjae turns off the light and crosses the room to get into his bed, but before he can do more than sit down, he hears Daehyun’s voice cut through the darkness.

“Youngjae. Come on.”

It’s three words and two sentences that don’t have any _real_ meaning. They could be about anything, directed towards any situation at any time. Except that Daehyun is saying them now, and they both know what he means, and Youngjae just hopes he isn’t too scared to be a part of this. It feels immediate. It feels like the world is spinning around them while they stand still, like this is their last chance to do this, when he’d never even known they had all the other chances in the first place.

He slides into bed with Daehyun, slipping under the covers until he can feel Daehyun’s belly brush against his, both of them in just their boxers. Daehyun should smell like a dirty barstool right about now, considering the beer he had, followed by the greasy breakfast food, but somehow, he smells like warm, rich chocolate and he tastes like cotton candy when Youngjae kisses him for the first time.

And just like that, they’re off. They know every move of this dance already. They know exactly what to do and how to do it. They know how to count the breaths in between each of their heartbeats and they know when to clasp hands and push and pull, and when Youngjae wakes up in the morning, Daehyun is still there, smiling in his sleep, curling into Youngjae’s arms sweetly, and Youngjae smiles too and drifts off again.


End file.
